News Roundup › Culture

“Small business is too important to the state’s economy for policymakers to ignore it.”

Source: City Business

For years, New Yorkers have grown basil, tomatoes and greens in window boxes, backyard plots and community gardens. But more and more New Yorkers like the Wilkses are raising fruits and vegetables, and not just to feed their families but to sell to people on their block.

This urban agriculture movement has grown even more vigorously elsewhere. Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that, like East New York, have low-income residents, high rates of obesity and diabetes, limited sources of fresh produce and available, undeveloped land.

Source: New York Times

The recent uptick in big-box projects and proposals in the Crescent City, fueled by tax subsidies and other costly giveaways, has left owners of smaller home-grown businesses in related industries gritting their teeth and bracing for hard times.

Source: Times-Picayune

“It is only fitting that New Orleans’ favorite beer sponsors and supports this showcase for New Orleans’ unique cultural heritage,” said David Blossman, president of Abita Brewing Co. “We’re glad to do our part to help keep the French Quarter Festival the largest free music festival in the South.”

Source: City Business

The opening note has been sounded on the long-awaited renovation of a historic jazz hall in Treme, signaling progress for what is expected to become a major tourist attraction in a part of the city long ignored by most tourists, despite its storied past.

Source: City Business

In the late 1960s, I argued that DC should have governing neighborhood commissions. When we were granted “advisory neighborhood commissions” in the 1970s, I argued that our first goal should be to kick the A out of ANC, replacing their token status with real governmental powers. I still believe such bodies are a greatly needed national urban reform. Among the jobs of such bodies would be to preserve the community and culture which they serve.

Source: Progressive Review

The 2,500 square feet of space on the first floor of the circa-1820 building, which by the summer of 2009 will contain half a million dollars’ worth of exhibits, will launch what the superintendent calls the “soft opening” of one of 391 national parks.

It also could refer tourists and others to its satellite site, a $12 million “world-class jazz museum” under development at the Old U.S. Mint in the French Quarter, and to a jazz walk of fame along the levee in Algiers, a short ferry ride away.

Source: Times-Picayune

Today, though, Wal-Mart’s influence over the retail universe is slipping. In fact, the industry’s titan is scrambling to keep up with swifter rivals that are redefining the business all around it. It can still disrupt prices, as it did last year by cutting some generic prescriptions in the United States to $4. But success is no longer guaranteed.

Source: MSN

Pre-Katrina, the St. Charles line, which extended from Canal Street to Carrollton Avenue and Claiborne Avenue, ran 24 hours a day, but the new Canal-to-Napoleon service will operate daily from 5:27 a.m. to 11:55 p.m. with a fleet of five 1923 Perley Thomas streetcars running 10 minutes apart.

Source: Times-Picayune

“The new broadcast outlet offers a window into the rapidly changing African American political consciousness in post-Katrina New Orleans. The new format, “Talk Back: Talk Black” marks a significant development in African American political life post-Katrina. Bakewell’s comments on today’s broadcast made it clear that his goal is to make WBOK a voice for African Americans in New Orleans and the Diaspora.

Source: The New Orleans Agenda

A dozen boats, remnants of a commercial fishing fleet that once numbered 150 vessels, have returned to their historic home in Bucktown for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

Source: Times-Picayune

Rouses, an independent family-run company, … currently operates 16 stores in Louisiana, including four in the metro area. The chain has been eager to step up its presence in the New Orleans area and its involvement in the region’s post-Hurricane Katrina recovery.

“Who better than us to do it?” asked Donald Rouse, president of the company. “I don’t think a chain from out-of-state can come in and understand what’s going on, and we understand it and live it.”

Source: The Times-Picayune

The mere mention of gentrification has so inflamed the discussion … that stereotypes and political grandstanding have obscured the facts and tangible impacts on real people. Austin succeeded, at least in part, in detaching itself from much of the hyperbole by conducting a set of separate, relatively rigorous studies on the intersection of gentrification and preservation. The city’s efforts have suggested that the answer to gentrification is not found in broad-brush generalizations, but rather in analyzing each neighborhood’s specific economic and social concerns, understanding them as inextricably tied to a complex local history, and devising appropriate solutions and strategies responsive to the community’s needs and aspirations.

Source: The Next American City

Source: City Business

According to the blueprint overseas travel to the US has slumped 17 per cent since 2001, even as world travel to other countries reaches historic growth levels. The decline has cost US$94 billion ($127 billion) in visitor spending, US$16 billion in tax receipts, and some 194,000 American jobs.

Source: The New Zealand Herald

“Don’t tell people all over the world that we need to save the jazz musicians of New Orleans and then turn around and shut down one of their jazz clubs,” said Ben Gersh.

Source: City Business

The New Orleans Video Access Center’s and the Digital Filmmaking Institute’s first “48 Hour Film School” workshop Jan. 27-28 produced a completed short film “Breaking Bread.” It was produced by workshop participants, edited in one day, and is available online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEdHnEU07cs.

Source: City Business

MS&R donated the time and talent to restore the Alvar Street Branch Library. Located in the Bywater Neighborhood of New Orleans, it is the first library severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina to reopen.

Source: MS&R

The Haley Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, which began in 1999, is an
extension of the in-school curriculum developed by Haley faculty member Cherice Harrison-Nelson, Queen of the Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians. She established a program to teach Haley students to appreciate their Mardi Gras Indian culture and to learn from the traditions of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians.

Source: Pat Jolly Community List

What? Live Music, Art, and Food.
Where? 2831 Marais St. (Corner of Marais and Press Sts.)
When? July 29th 12pm to 10pm.

Source: Hand Bill

Cyril Neville boarded Amtrak’s City of New Orleans train with a full head of steam. He joined singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie earlier this month for the first leg of a 12-day journey from Chicago to New Orleans, playing concerts along the way to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Neville, however, won’t be on the train when it rolls into his old hometown. He won’t be going home at all.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

My wife questions the wisdom of my frequent forays into the massive expanse of blown-apart lives and property that local street maps used to call Gentilly, Lakeview, the East and the Lower 9th. She fears that it contributes to my unhappiness and general instability and I suspect she is right.

Perhaps I should just stay on the stretch of safe, dry land Uptown where we live and try to move on, focus on pleasant things, quit making myself miserable, quit reliving all those terrible things we saw on TV that first week.

That’s advice I wish I could follow, but I can’t. I am compelled for reasons that are not entirely clear to me. And so I drive.

Source: Times Picayune